Brand new book published on ‘The Birds of Bute’

This image of a waxwing in the Montague Street gardens in Rothesay town centre is one of many beautiful illustrations in The Birds of Bute.

The first comprehensive record for 85 years of the bird life to be found on Bute has been published.

The Birds of Bute - A Bird Atlas and Local Avifauna has been compiled by Ron Forrester, Ian Hopkins and Doug Menzies, all keen Bute ornithologists and members of the Bute Bird Group, and has been published jointly by the Buteshire Natural History Society and the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club.

The book is the result of the Bute Atlas project, the local contribution to the UK-wide Bird Atlas initiative, organised by the SOC, the British Trust for Ornithology and BirdWatch Ireland, to record and map the distribution of the British Isles’ bird life between 2007 and 2011.

In addition to accounts of more than two hundred bird species seen on Bute, the book gives short summaries of the Bute Atlas project, the island’s landscape and a history of ornithology on Bute as well as a brief overview of the island’s avifauna.

The book is also illustrated by many colourful and spectacular pictures which show off the talent of the island’s many wildlife photographers, including the book’s three authors as well as Phil Kirkham, John Williams and The Buteman’s wildlife columnist Norrie Mulholland.